The kim and zozi way

by Roza Sinaysky | 26.04.14

When I first met Zoar (best known as Zozi) I was immediately surrounded by her good vibes and her free spirit attitude was so contagious it’s no wonder it didn’t take long for us to bond and become fashion buddies. I was so intrigued by the huge international success and the work she is doing with her business partner Kim Ben Shimon for their sneaker and accessory brand Kim and Zozi I just had to see what was the hippie luxe style is all about and after an afternoon spent in their peaceful Californian style environment I now understand what the hype is all about. Welcome to the Kim and Zozi’s chilled out world of beads and kicks. Photos by Liah Chesnokov.

RS: Tell me about how you started the brand?KZ: Collectively we share the same creative passion and lust for life. It is through our friendship and personal journey that our brand, Kim & Zozi was born. We do have to give credit a very cool fashion house in Paris called American Retro who were the first to carry us in store. Being fashion Gurus themselves, working with them really gave us a platform and exposed us to the European market.

RS:What is Kim and Zozi all about?KZ: Lifestyle! That’s it!

RS: What are the advantages of working from here? Our Lifestyle; Family, Music, Surf.

KZ: Family: We are both mothers to 2 boys and working from home allows us to spend the time needed to properly mold and raise our children. We get to be witness to their childhood, which at the end of the day is the most important thing to us.

Music: We are music junkies! There is so much good music here, from electronic to live blues. Tel Aviv is always jammin!

Surf: While the surf isn’t the best in the world…it’s good enough! Sometimes just being at the sea, breathing in the salty air staring at this incredible life force is enough to clear your mind, rejuvenate and make room for some kick ass designs!

Lifestyle: We have the prefect lifestyle here. The perfect mix between, Beach Culture, City life and Travel. That’s what truly gives us inspiration, motivation and drive! We get to hope over to our LA workshop, take in the LA vibe. Stop over in Paris on the way back, and arrive at our studio in Israel and let all the things we’ve seen along our journey just gush out through our fingers and into our work.

RS:

How do you divide the work between the two of you?K&Z: Our work is a collective of our creativity. We work together on Inspiration boards and discuss new ideas mostly types of materials and colors that we would like to see in upcoming collections. A lot of the time Kim will hop into TLV or order materials from the internet and we will place them all on the table and just begin. That’s when true magic happens.

RS: Are you thinking of expanding the brand and make other items of clothing? What else would you love to design?

K&Z: So happy you asked! We just launched our first sneaker collection, they should be in Shoufra stores in Israel by the end of the month! If you are over seas you can find them on Zappo’s, Nordstom, Urban Outfitters to name a few and of course in select, super cool boutiques.

K&Z: A lot of Images!!!! It’s crazy! Kim and I also do all the imagery for the brand ourselves and between facebook and instagram, it truly is a full time job! You need to put up a min of 3 images a day for instagram and depending on which country you are in, there are also specific hours where you are more likely to reach more people. It’s actually a cool world. We can spend hours looking through Insta. it’s overflowing with inspiration!

RS: Anyone you would like to collaborate with?!K&Z: There are so many people we would like to collaborate with. We are currently working on a Co Branded Collaboration, Kim&Zozi for Hollister! How cool? We are sooo thrilled to be working with them, the sneakers will be on line by the end of November! We love working together with other designers and co creating. It’s an amazing process!

RS: So, what’s next for Kim & Zozi!?K&Z: Who knows! Our dream is to open a store in Venice Beach, LA. The power of words, just had to put it out there…

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